Some
boys are rich by birth beyond all wants.Beloved
by uncles, and kind, good old aunts.
When Time comes round a Christmas box they bear,
And one day makes rich for all the year Trad.

"Trad.,"
notwithstanding, I never knew anyone to get rich from Boxing Day myself,
but not for want of trying.

For those
who aren't in the know, Boxing Day is the one following Christmas. Officially,
it's called St. Stephen's Day. In England, where I come from, it's the
first working day after Christmas Day. (What's the point in making Sunday
a holiday, eh?)

Memories
of those distant days still haunt me. Boxing Day always, in my family,
was a time of combined reflection and belated celebration. Reflection
on such important matters as, "Oh why did we eat that five pound box of
sweets yesterday?" combined with the knowledge that even a whole bottle
of Alka Seltzer couldn't help relieve the agony.

Celebration
because Boxing Day was the day when distant relatives, particularly those
with children, would descend upon our house. The relatives' arrival initiated
the final exchange of "pressies," and the long, arduous task of fighting
amongst ourselves about who had the best Christmas pressies this year.

These
periods of assault, combined with food binges, in-depth games sessions
and frequent telling-offs from our moms and dads made Boxing Day a fun
day for the children, albeit our parents felt otherwise. I can't remember
how many times my parents threatened to box my ears for some misdemeanor
or another. Yet the true origin of Boxing Day is another of those events
that have faded beyond the reach of legend. Possibly, it began in Roman
days when it was traditional to exchange "sacred boughs" during saturnalia.
(Personally, I found the latest Batman action figure to be a much more
interesting gift.)

The tradition
could have started even further back with the ritual of the Celtic Wren
Hunt. Usually, it meant bad luck to kill a wren. But on the Celtic festival
that corresponded to our Boxing Day, the wren was hunted with great ceremony
and paraded on a pole from house to house to bring good fortune to the
village for the rest of the year.

Is that
what they mean by giving someone "the bird?"

Most
scholars, though, agree that Boxing Day, the name and act, were started
in Britain. Especially since it is known to have been banned in Britain
in the 14th century, although a detailed search failed to reveal the reason
for the ban.

The holiday
appears to have started as the official day for opening the alms boxes
found in most English churches. An alms box is a small box found by the
door into which money is placed throughout the year for the poor of the
parish. Traditionally these donations were shared amongst the needy the
day after Christmas.

This
is not a common practice now. Mainly because the boxes are generally forcibly
opened more frequently by certain members of the public who feel they
would rather have the money sooner.

As usual,
the English didn't like to leave everything to the hands of the clergy,
(most of the clergy were affiliated to Rome anyway, and did we really
trust the Pope?) By the middle of the 19th century, it became commonplace
for the squires and lords of large estates to give "boxes" to their servants
on December 26. These boxes contained food, goods or money. The aristocrats
hoped these gifts would also ensure good service from their "staff" during
the following year.

The more
entrepreneurial of the poor took matters into their own hands by taking
small boxes out into the streets and asking for money. This wasn't begging.
We were merely sticking to traditions, honestly, Officer.

An over-eagerness
of this kind of soliciting finally led to a complete ban on unlicensed
street collections 365 days a year in our own century.

Even
so the tradition of donation lives on. I can remember my mother religiously
passing precious coins to the postman, a bottle of whisky to the dustbin
men, and chocs to the milkman every year.

Isn't
it good to see that the traditions of our great and distant forebears
still holds true in these troubled times? With no other ulterior motive
than to make people happy. Besides which, we never got garbage spilled
on our lawns.